I’ve wanted to make a guide for a very long time but wanted to experience everything about the class that I could before I posted this build for others to see. I’m making this build on the grounds that I have attempted to help people in the past; and either the information and tips that I give to them are forgotten by the time they can fully utilise them, or the higher item level players are too arrogant to listen to improvements. The information will be fully displayed and updated where needed to allow anybody who wishes to make improvements do so at any given time.

When reading this build please utilise everything in this build including how to build feats and perform correct rotations, but when you feel knowledgeable enough; try to make your own play style when running through dungeons. I always advise this because someone who has a personal play style will always have more skill and beat anyone who is using someone else’s play style. Always keep this in mind when using a GWF I only say this because nobody ever talks about it and it is an essential part of being at the top of the damage board as much as possible.

There is now a testing updates section where I’ll be posting anything I find during testing some useful some not depending on how you like to play feel free to look every now and then to see different things, I’ll post 5 things up and each time I find something new the old post will be replaced.

There is a level 70 guide at the bottom of the page.

Race:

In this picture I run a Dragon Born race as I feel that for maximum output this is the best race to go, however if I was to choose another race it would be the Half Orc; mainly for the 5% crit severity. Be warned that crit severity is not as good as many people think if it can be traded up for consistent damage do so.

On the GWF the main stats are Strength Dexterity and Charisma, But the best thing to do it to apply the plus two bonuses at the character creation screen to Strength and Dexterity at the beginning; i would recommend only switching to Charisma after you can achieve 85-90% crit chance when loosing the +2 bonus from the dragon born race and all of the ability points in Dexterity. I have not mentioned human as it is not one of the superior races for the GWF and i will only be featuring feats for these two races.

Explanation

Rex Corona – I use this head piece as it gives 2150 extra power and 1050 defense, it is less than the Guise of the World Clan; since 100 power is gained every 5 seconds it quickly becomes the best head piece for straight power. In mod 14 i know armour penetration can now be tough with the nerf so it is possible to use the primal head piece for extra armour penetration although it is not recommended.

Unparalleled Negation – This enchantment is still broken but fell free to upgrade it from pure to unparalleled and it should be fine just make sure if you are going to upgrade it go straight from pure to unparalleled. I now have an Unparalleled Negation and it works as intended and is very good in my opinion it is worth the upgrade after your weapon enchantments and companion.

The reason I do not run the transcendent negation is that i like survivability on my GWF the character does automatically acquire it but it does have the means for it if you can do it. The negation is meant to give you damage resistance the more hits your character takes and this stacks up to a maximum of 10 stacks, however the transcendent is only ever stacks to 3 stacks and does not go past it. I discovered this issue and ever since I started using a pure it goes all the way to ten stacks. I would recommend this if you’re looking to tank partially with this class.

Bronzewood Huitzauhqui (Bronzewood Set) – I am using the Bronzewood set as it is the new best in slot weapon set with the highest amount of weapon damage, I am not using the +1 version, whilst technically it is best in slot the price of the items currently are not worth it, you will not see a noticeable damage difference between the sets so I would advise getting the regular sets to save on cost.

Utility Slots – I run all dark enchantments for extra movement to allow me to beat other DPS to groups since the objective is to get there first which allows us to build stacks first and do more damage overall to the groups the only dungeon i recommend staying with the group is FBI but this varies depending on item level.

Rings – I’m currently using the undead slayer + 5 for Mod 14 since all of the enemies are undead, when aura of courage is fixed it will still be viable since the mobs are undead. The shadow stalker + 4 i m running is in as a filler until i possible can get a +5, i am using this ring over the undead slayer because the small damage percentane can be roughly made up from the extra offense slot the ring had you can run an Undead Slayer +4 if you do not have a Shadowstalker.

Defense Slots – I run black ice in my defensive slots now to enhance the stats that contribute towards Assassin’s Covenant to provide more power on my class.

Lightning Enchantment/Feytouched Enchantment/Prominenece – This was a very nice addition to the GWF for mod 12b it did increase overall damage in dungeons but I have been noticing a few issues with this enchantment, the issue is that it has severely reduced damage on bosses. I propose for the more financially well of players that you have a lightning for the mobs and swap it out to the Feytouch enchantment.

The feytouched enchantment is best in slot for almost every scenario, I say almost as I have found that a holy avenger or terror is capable of doing slightly more damage in low tier groups; there are not many of these groups left in the game but I have been in some of them and i have found the feytouch is not best in slot for those groups, however, it is best in slot in any mediocre group and higher so it should be used by every GWF based on the chance of that low group very minimal.

For the prominence enchantment I will give the advantages and disadvantages that i have found from it, the advantages is that for at will once it proccs I have been able to achieve much higher at will hits than i ever could with the fey, however I can only get the damage to excel on at-wills on encounter powers my fey was still hitting a lot more overall but my at-wills were lower. whilst the fey does have an instant proc the prominence takes some time to build on the GWF but if the clerics are times with the prominence the results from at-wills are numbers i have not been able to touch before. The prominence seems to be group dependent i managed to excel using a temp lock and sometimes with a very good cleric but this does not seem to be the case all of the time and sometimes it feels like a regular enchantment.

Since the prominence can only be used on single target effectively you can use a full self-buff rotation by removing IBS for Daring Shout. My final conclusion to this enchantment is that whilst amazing i look at it as if it doesn’t work in every scenario then it’s not worth using it only a personal opinion but you have to think not about how the damage is done but the end result whilst it amazes me how much it can destroy bosses with at-wills however in the same time a fey can still do more by using IBS. Its just the result of the damage that looks different which is why I was intrigued at first but overall it’s not consistent enough for me.

Critical Chance – This can be a pretty tricky matter to get in to, some people say that 100% crit chance is better but if you’re already using the lightning you do not need it i only run around 85% on proc and I crit almost every hit and this doesn’t vary between dungeons, however you could run in to an issue as i have noticed the Vorpal somewhat kills your crit chance so either swap out a little power for crit and use the Vorpal or just rely souly on your buff group being very good. But you can also swap out the Vorpal for a Feytouch and keep your crit chance the same and still put out the same if not slightly more damage for this build.

Swapping Weapons – I still swap weapons between a single target and an AOE enchantment as stated above we now only use one set for Mod 15, so i am currently using two main hands and one off hand, if you are financially well- off then i would advise you could take the route of a second off-hand and acquire an extra 400 combat advantage to our class if you’d like to.

Main Hand/ Off Hand Powers – on your main hand always use Sure Strike for best DPS output on the off hand you can use wrathful determination for more run speed if you finish a fight with a near full determination bar it will give you 20% more run speed to stay ahead of the other DPS.

*Hint – If you are swapping weapons from trash mobs to bosses then i recommend you switch the main hand power for the trash mobs to Weapon Master Strike as that will give you an extra 8% damage through an at will that will be used more than Sure Strike on the trash mobs. You should switch the off hand power to steel blitz; even though it’s a separate bonus it will still help since you’ll always run steel blitz on groups.

Artifacts – As far as artifacts go the Heart of the black dragon and SSC (Soul Sight Crystal) are always your main artifact and you will always want to use your Heart of the black dragon away from all mobs to get the 75% cooldown reduction. and use the SSC when you see all the buffs go down to gain maximum effectiveness from the 50% damage. The lantern purely for stats along with the Key of Stars and the Orcus shard; i also run the Orcus neck and belt to complete the set as this is the best set bonus for the GWF.

The reason you use a Heart of the Black Dragon is that you take advantage of artificer’s persuasion as it lasts for 15 seconds and so does the Heart; so the heart adds around 20% damage compared to the wheel’s 30% however it can be used at every group compared to a 60 second cooldown that can rarely be used. This is a crucial part of starting every mob rotation.

Bladelord’s Raid/Assault Breastplate & Heels of Fury

The Heels of fury now stack with the Fured Kiuno of the bear so you should run this setup from this point forward, you can also use boots of the willed a temporary filler but attempt to get the heels of fury when possible. The fured Kiuno will be better since the power diminishing forces the Bladelord’s Breastplate to fall behind the Fured Kiuno overall in a dungeon after applying AA.

Feats

Powerful Challenge – This allows any marked target to take 15% more damage from you, I would highly recommend this skill for all GWF it is necessary for when we get around to explaining the encounter powers. I would recommend the deflect chance for the recovery feat, when I was a low item level it never saved me that often but if absolutely necessary run it temporarily until you’re a bit tougher.

Slam – This is the feat that we remove student of the sword for, it allows the daily slam to give you 25% of your power back to you for a short time, I would recommend this as it plays a role from beginning to end for more damage in a dungeon for the GWF.

Alternate Loadout – This is the second build I have been working on to allow us to clear groups of enemies faster therefor allowing us more damage, this build does not use Slam but does feature relentless battle fury, now that Might Blade had been reworked this build will still outperform slam in certain scenarios. This new build allows the GWF to use battle fury on groups and daring shout on the bosses. This feat allows a 25% increase in the uptime of battle fury which is long enough for you to kill most groups. The downfall to this skill is it is meant to have a 50% cooldown reduction on battle fury but this does not work, unfortunately.

I would spec into Student of the Sword but i find it almost useless even at the best of times; if you really do not want to use battle fury then you can spec in to this feat and still use the same rotation stated below.

Everything else on the build stays the same as the original build so you can continue to follow this guide for your second load out slot, i can not find a reason to have a third for the GWF yet i’ll update the build if i find one.

Encounter Powers

Daring Shout – This power will mark targets within a small radius around you, this gives you combat advantage to the target marked and it increased your damage resistance depending on the strength of the enemy, another skill that allows us to tank better This is a recommended skill to be used until bosses but for all groups clearing through dungeons use this skill.

There is a potential scenario where this is better than Battle Fury and it could come to fruition if you was to use the boar (targets take 5% more damage if marked) and then in the second build for trash mobs swap the feat points back to Battle Awareness.

Hidden Daggers – This power is very handy for a couple of reasons the main reason for it is to give a 40% increase in damage for 8 seconds to the GWF and it can be used multiple time but the buff does not stack, however the alternate use for this power is to do damage. One example would be castle never in the first hallway inside the castle I run to the last group of rotters in that hallway kill them and quickly turn around and use 2 hidden daggers this will clear out the rest of the rotters for more damage. This skill does a very nice amount of damage nothing phenomenal but good enough to use on groups. This skill will always be slotted in every dungeon.

Indomitable Battle Strike (IBS) – This is our heavy hitting move if you get your buffs correct with some rotations i will explain further down the page then this skill is the main source of chunks coming away from the bosses health bar, it should always be slotted and should only be used inside determination and never any other time.

Battle Fury – This skill is useful in the correct scenarios; one example of this would be for the alternate build in this guide; I recommend this power because it does allow you to gain a full stamina bar again once it is reduced. This skill will come in especially handy for new people trying this style of play; relentless battle fury will allow 25% extra up-time for battle fury making it easier to use.

Sure Strike – This is the GWFs most damage At-will power and it will certainly give you the most damage, you use this skill once you reach the maximum determination bar it can be used before but you’re just losing damage for yourself and this build is not about that. This move when fully buffed will create a lot of issue for other counterpart DPS in the dungeon because of the high damage output, it also scaled your class very nicely with high buff/debuff groups.

Weapon Master’s Strike – This At-will allows you to hit multiple enemies and spawn a clone of yourself behind that enemy granting you combat advantage and the damage that comes with it, this is a must have At-will power and is used for quick feat stacking to output high damage, it is probably the best group clearing the move GWF has as of this point.

Class Feature: Destroyer – This active goes very nicely with WMS since it gives you extra damage for every 3 targets hit by hit and this stacks a lot of damage for a class feature and helps with mod clearing especially this is needed in every scenario at any item level.

Class Feature : Wrathful Determination/Weapon Master – I say to different class features now I would always recommend wrathful determination for the simple fact that it gives you damage percentage depending on how full your determination bar is but it then doubles that percentage when determination is used giving mass damage output for you and it is consistent. Sometimes it is harder for lower item level GWFs to have very high crit chance so Weapon master I would recommend I use this myself from around 10000-12000/13000, and I found it easier to beat higher level GWFs with this than wrathful determination so I would definitely recommend it if you’re around this item level.

Daily: Slam – This daily power allows is a good daily to use even on groups but it does have a somewhat long cast time so it can interrupt your battle slightly so you need to be careful when tanking groups of enemies at a time it could be fatal.

Daily: Crescendo – I have this daily slotted but never use it unless it is by accident because the cast time takes way to long and it is no that beneficial to use as a daily I would only recommend it to fill the slot but nothing more than that. on the flip side, it does have high damage so you may be able to get it to work in a high buff group but it would still be obsolete to Slam.

Class Feature : Steel Blitz – This is a new edition since the introduction of the lightning in mod 11, I have used steel blitz and have even attempted to use a Death Slaadi to get those extra hits from steel blitz; but I find it to give me less damage, this may vary because I am the maximum item level so I thought I would put in in this build as an optional thing to run on the groups in a dungeon but never run this on the bosses. you would swap out Wrathful Determination/Weapon Master for this class feature. The Slaadi will add poison to your weapon allowing you to proc steel blitz more often but only upgrade the Slaadi to blue as at purple it becomes an AOE and not attached to the weapon so it will not proc steel blitz. I don’t use this personally because I can build my determination max very efficiently even on low health pool groups but for lower levels, you could consider it, do not run this skill at all in FBI/MSVA/SVA.

Rotation

Daring Shout – when you first go up to a group you will use Daring Shout to mark all of the enemies this will build a lot of determination for you and it will give you more damage resistance to help tank the enemies and this will also give you more buff stacks and you would proceed to annihilate this group because of the extra damage the mark gives you.

Hidden Daggers – You will use this skill for two reasons one for the buff it gives you and two for the amount of damage it deals out depending on the item level of your GWF this moves is more effective but it will still work none the less, Higher level GWFs can acquire more damage at a convenient rate making it better but this rotation will still work all the same. You will then use hidden daggers on the group for extra damage and buff.

Weapon Master Strike – You will then go closer to the enemies and prepare to obliterate them with WMS this should take a few swings but your damage will build up with this, i would recommend this skill for also building stacks in boss fights because it does a double hit making ti faster at stacking the feats you need quicker so incorporate this immediately in the boss killing portion of the dungeon. One thing i never see anyone mention is what to do if you die in the boss fight because when you die you stacks which contribute to your damage so to start back up again the fastest method is WMS to start then Daring Shout to Hidden Daggers and then Indomitable Battle Strike.

Indomitable Battle Strike – This encounter power is to only be used when you use determination and use IBS after you use determination if you have done the rotation correctly you will have ample stacks for a nice IBS hit. For groups i would recommend if you need to use IBS if you are a lower item level attempt to line up as many target as possible this is your highest damaging encounter you want to hit as many target as possible with it.

Sure Strike – This At-Will need to be used in determination after you use IBS once you have used your first determination if it is a group it will usually be dead but in a boss fight you will use your first determination with the rotation and you will then have 10 stacks of Destroyer’s Purpose this grants you a lot of extra damage at this point you can incorporate Sure Strike as a usable At-Will since you have max stacks and charge your determination to full and re-use.

Dailies: Slam – This is a daily power that you will always use over Crescendo because the build is based around Slam this power will boost your power by 25% but bare in mind that all targets affected by this will have double aggro towards you so you could pull some enemies if you’re doing good damage also, so beware of that when tanking as well.

Battle Fury – Use this skill for mobs and bosses for the conistent damage buff and for infinite stamina, on mobs this skill is particularaly useful since you can manoeuvre around mobs more efficiently to allow for more combat advantage since every dps will now be using the Razorwood.

Tips- If you are using Weapon master then the method of stacking determination to the max bar before using it doesn’t do anything for you so you can use it below a full bar and still get full effectiveness out of it. The full rotation with everything at max would be Wheel of elements and grab fire then use IBS sprint forward and then stop before it uses the move to proc Overcharge attack for 10% more damage then use the Tenser’s Disk and then Slam and begin the rotation above.

Rotation Videos – I am displaying my rotation(s) necessary to cover all types of enemies in a dungeon ranging from groups to single target, I am showing this because some people find it easier to learn from watching rather than just reading and improvising in game.

This is a new group rotation since I found that this build would suffer more during the groups and excel on bosses; whilst there is no IBS the full rotation does a lot more on groups and will benefit you far greater than IBS. If you have two weapon sets then using WMS on your main hand artifact hand power for the extra 8% damage will give you maximum damage using this rotation. Everyone is different so even if you didn’t notice this issue with this build this new rotation will make you even stronger from where you are.

If you wish to use a Prominence enchantment please use this rotation on bosses as well because IBS is less effective with this enchantment than the fey and you could see higher results.

This is my single target rotation it could vary on some enemies where I need more stacks at a more efficient rate; but I would usually use this rotation, feel free to adapt this as the objective is to gain a full determination bar as this will give us the damage that we are looking for. (Only adapt this as long as you feel you’re gaining the necessary stacks for maximum damage output)

Testing Updates

This section will simply be devoted to adding in small updates and changes I find through testing, you can choose to look at it if you’d like it frequently to see small changes I find.

#1

Fured Kiuno of the Bear could still be better next mod since 80k power procced gives harsh diminishing returns.

#2

When using the Heart of the Black Dragon through mobs it’s damage buff is around 20%-22% which can be used every 15 seconds compared to the wheels 30% every minute.

#3

The feat Vicious Advantage seems to remove damage rather than apply it during a dungeon after activating combat advantage.

#4

Removing AOE targeting assist on a GWF makes hit detection a lot worse with and without lag.

#5

Combatant’s Maneuvre (Mount Bonus) only applies when the physical character is standing at the side or behind the target. Doesn’t apply with skills or passives; this could apply to all classes.

Speed Running

I’m not going to specifically say how to do the first part of Tomb of the Nine Gods because the speed run can be found on youtube in 30 seconds, but it will explain how to cover the loss of not being capable of cancelling your daily power in mod 13 and how to speed the run-up still. So you can just use your daily to proc shepherd’s but i recommend a different solution. In mod 13 it is possible to switch mount with loadouts meaning in order to help speed up the run; when jumping the 2nd and 3rd staircase you should be running 5 Gladiator’s Guile; then in the insignia slots run movement for extra speed and then on that specific loadout run the GWF passive Bravery, This drastically improves mobility and movement speed using this will allow you to jump the staircase in T9G and speed your run up for the group. You can also use a horn if necessary to speed you up even more but it won’t be necessary to jump the staircase and open the door for your team. You must switch back from that loadout to fight mobs if you want to do any damage to them.

You should also buy a cheap offhand if you do not run 2 sets as you can then use wrathful determination to gain a maximum of 20% more base speed either after mob groups or bosses. Since the mount power can now change with build feel free to run 4000 movement to make yourself even faster but you can also run 2000 movement and that will be more than fast enough. The boots of drafting is good to run in speed run groups and can be acquired from ‘Eku’ in the Lost City of Omu area.

Tanking

I respect the tanks of the game but in some cases they just are not fast enough for me so i am telling you to run ahead of the group but the issue is that some of the lower item level players could die doing this and would then be forced to stick with the group until they are strong enough to do otherwise. One way to help tank is to sprint just before the enemy hits you it is not commonly heard in builds but this gives you extra damage resistance and allows you to tank stronger enemies if needed. Obviously get a Negation this is essential even if it is low level it will help you none the less. Apply the guild HP boon now I can tank but I still only have 200k standing hit points around the 230k area in a dungeon so i can still die. I just want to make lower item level players have slightly better tanking capabilities because support gets annoyed when their DPS die it takes longer to do the dungeon. The most effective way to take the hit is sprint and then stop just after they hit you, you do not want to continue sprinting you just want to be in that sprint mode long enough to take the hit, this tanking does need life steal though obviously do not do this without life steal as explained above. Tanking for the GWF is still by chance because each hit needs to give life steal so it all bases on chance remember that.

Companions

Companions – In this screenshot, i am displaying the chultan tiger as it is the best in slot companion. The reason for that is first because of its active bonus; and its ability to be able to make an enemy take 10% more damage from all sources. This is more overpowered than people realise because there is a lot of damage that is not affected by normal debuffs compared to a target(s) taking more damage from all sources. the other bonuses are 5% more damage and run speed 5% more damage for 25 seconds is enough to kill any group and bosses for some groups as well; the run speed helps for speed runs or just being faster in general.

This companion setup using the Earth Archon instead of the Erinyes of Belial give more steady DPS assuming your health stays at full most of the time; this is dependent on the ability to keep full health as much as possible which is dependent on groups, so this is a recommendation, but you can use potions to buff critical severity I recommend wild storm elixir and squash soup, even without these buffs it will still allow for more damage; but since it is group dependent the companions could be switched out easily depending on groups.

Boons

Guild Boons – Max power boon (8000), Max defense boon (8000), Revive sickness boon for T9G or mount speed in other dungeons. For now, run HP boon since Aura of Courage on a Paladin works from our HP and not the Paladin’s; you will notice a large increase in damage if you equip the HP over defense, for now, don’t worry about the power loss the damage will more than make up for it.

Even though the campaign is not completed i wanted to upload it as i finished the only important boons in the campaign, for the fourth boon simple choose the boon furthest left. Some people may like to switch to hitpoints (i have seen it) Please don’t do that since it will hinder your damage severely compared to what I am running here.

For this campaign area, you can counterbalance 1000 power or 1000 crit depending on how you have built your GWF; I would recommend the crit severity since there are not many good choices. However, if you really do not need crit severity as you are easily hitting 120% then I recommend either recovery or life steal if you still are not between 12% – 18%

Boons – The boons all revolve around self-stability as well as the maximising of stats, the guild boons I run are Power and defence I would encourage all GWFs to do the same these are the two most important ones.

Mount (Trash Mobs)

Mount (Single Target)

Mounts – I use the T-Rex, the reason I use this mount is because it provides a 10% debuff to all enemies hit within its cast radius. This is only beneficial on Trash mobs; this cannot be used on a boss for any other class it is best in slot however for the GWF Tenser’s Disk provides more damage for you. The Tenser’s Disk is BIS however you need other T-Rexs to piggy back from this depends on your damage but a better measure would be to assume you need 2-3 T-Rexs and in a 10 man 5 minimum. Anything lower than this you’ll be better of switching to the rex temporarily.

Trash Mob Insignia Bonuses

Insignias – The reason I do not run any armour penetration on my character is because it is all run through my mounts and artifacts I did this because I wanted to be able to switch around armour or most enchantments without a restriction so this was an option but it is an expensive one so bare that in mind.

The reason you run Shepherd’s Devotion is that using the heart of the black dragon provides action point gain which will allow you to boost power by spamming slam and that will boost your stats even higher depending on how long each mob group lasts.

I took away Cavalry’s Warning is because whilst it does boost power it can only be manipulated every 60 seconds and it useless for mobs. Using artificer’s influence will give another boost whilst using the heart of the black dragon boosting Shepherd’s even further.

Single Target Insignia Bonuses

Running Shepherd’s is a viable option; the other option is that you can run combatant’s manuever to boost your damage temporarily every time you use your daily since slam controls targets. In reality, these are the best options but because Magistrate’s is bugged where it lowers your damage it is better to call this a free slot and can run what you’d like but the option i chose are my personal opinions and which i think are best in slot at the moment. Combatant’s Manuever will only apply if you physcially stand behind the target it will not apply with skills like Weapon Master Strike.

stamina

This is a huge thing for this build, stamina for this build equals to damage because getting to the groups first is what matters the faster you can build those stacks on groups the more damage you will get compared to the other DPS. Things that can help with stamina gain our as follows:

Stamina regeneration jewels

Mount Insignia Bonuses

Boons

Character Statistics

Stats – These are my stats for right now standing with the Chultan Tiger; my stats have taken a drop since i have taken my defense boon away for HP because i always run with a Paladin, and i just lost another 2k power applying mighht blade to my builds. Don’t worry about standing stats since the incease in flat damage buffs on the class far outwiegh the powr i used to have.

These are my statistics for the full buff proc, my armour pen is a little over 85% but I don’t consider it wasted stats since it is an addition of the heroic sword knot from my companion.

These are my procced stats with the Chultan Tiger on with nothing but the buff from protectors camaraderie.

These are the stats when I am full buffed using my Tenser’s Disk, Cavalry’s Warning, Wheel of elements, and Slam.

These are my procced stats they vary slightly since I am testing these stats on a training dummy, however, they are very close to the actual stats in a dungeon. My critical severity is a little low and that is because I have re-distributed some of the tyranny of dragons campaign boons to more suit to my survivability but you can apply them all to crit severity if you wish to.

These are my stats fully procced with the alternate build for the second loadout, the power is less than the original build, however, the increase in damage with the encounters and at-wills almost covers this power loss.

Fresh Level 70 guide

I’m making this just based on the fact that I still want people to be able to maximise their damage throughout the transition from starting a GWF to maxing a GWF. I know that people have already done this so some of this will not be new but each person did it differently and has different opinions on the subject and I want to make sure that people want to use this build from the start.

Levelling Experience – When levelling people like to know when the skills are unlocked and when they can use them; there is a list below that shows when you unlock and can use the skill. Using these skills through levelling will help you level up faster and allow you to get used part of the rotation for the GWF

Credit to (The Editor) for listing these powers and levels in the comments.

Volume 1 (Armour)

When the character is first starting out it can be tricky to gather armour for the GWF as well as weapons. The way to start would be to attempt to run a dungeon (Tier 1) this will be the base for collecting rough salvage each day to be able to then buy VIP. Most people will say that VIP is good just for the extra key and enchanted key benefits but that is not all. VIP will be used later on to be able to use trade bars so that we can buy two pieces of dusk armour later down the line; the other two pieces are elven so working towards running Tier 2 dungeons is a natural process of ranking up any character so there is no issue there.

Dusk raid scail mail, Dusk raid greaves, Elven ward vambraces and Elemental alliance assault sallet; these are the pieces of armour we are trying to acquire and are also the armour that can be used throughout the class until you acquire relic armour which as of mod 12 will be available from the seal vendor, I would suggest waiting until then and use the 4 armour pieces described above. The reason we do not use dragon flight is that it sucks, that is the easiest way to put it and should never be used; it does help with armour penetration but that can be gained by using darks on the class if necessary or from the artifacts that you run. You will upgrade to Primal gear from relic but that is a long way away yet.

The rings used can be acquired from regular Demogorgon which is unlocked already when you start the Underdark campaign but as of mod 12 you will be able to buy Ostorian rings so if you’re looking for more consistent stats then you can use those. The offense/defense slots will allow you to build more defense if needed and that will add to power overall; not a bad trade-off. The neck and belt will need to complete an Orcus set. The neck can be acquired from the end of the Maze Engine campaign or you could buy it if you get any drops from dungeons, the belt can be acquired from Demogorgon and epic Demogorgon.

Volume 2 (Weapons)

When it comes to weapons there are two paths the first one is that since you will be running Demogorgon to progress through the Underdark campaigns you can unlock epic Demogorgon and begin to farm for twisted weapons; you can then use these weapons to progress towards the ascended weapon sets. The second path is that if you have an already high Item level friend they could help you through the Cloaked Ascendancy and then you could acquire the Ascended weapons that then you’re done for the weapons. You can then progress to the chultan area and choose weapon sets stated in the build.

Enchantments for the class are a split between Radiants and Azures all the way through even at max this is the best way to get the best stats overall. Weapon enchantments vary between mods but for the time being, you can rock a low end Fey/Holy or lightning you will not have to worry about transitioning between single and multi-target you can use class features for that since Astral Diamonds are limited.

Volume 3 (Artifacts)

Artifacts can be a pain if you do not know the correct ones to run; the artifacts i would recommend if Wheel of Elements, Lantern of Revelation, Orcus’ Shard (to complete set), Key of the stars. However, these are expensive you can swap the key of the stars for a Sigil of the Controller but you will need a level 60 control wizard for that; You can also use Kessell’s Sphere of Annihilation; this would also help with armour penetration.

From now on just use the refining points you apply to the pouch to upgrade artifacts it’s less efficient, but it is the only way, unfortunately.

Volume 3 (Companions)

I have already gone over the companions to use but it is hard to start with a good companion and bonding stones are the second most key thing besides weapons for doing damage, when you’re building your character if you wan to maximise your DPS for where you’re at you need a companion from the start you can just find any cheap companion that has three offense slots for three low-level bonding stones. any gear you would like to acquire for the companion can be done by farming illusionist’ gambit; which is available for people at 70 ranging from a very low item level. The companion if you have any Astral diamond at this point is the Mercenary companion it is very efficient for proccing protector’s camaraderie and it is a great companion overall (can be obtained form pack on zen market or auction house, even though at the moment of writing this fire archons are only 300k it is not the best companion without the correct gear and that can be hard to get. Now you can acquire a con artist form white and use that but you will need to rank it up to the point of blue so that it can have the debuff skill for that extra 10% damage; this is good because its slots consist of 3 rings which can be bought from the vendor in mod 12 or you can get Fierce rings from illusionist’ gambit.

Volume 4 (Routine Dailies)

This is the part where I tell you how to gain the refinement you need so that when the double refinement comes around you will be prepared for it; one of the first things you will need is Wanderer’s Fortune

This ability only needs to be equipped once per day and only needs to require green insignias which cost almost nothing in astral diamonds, this power allows you to gain refinement for around 10 minutes once per day at an efficient rate I found it be around an 18 hour cooldown. This method is outdated but still worth doing if it only takes 10 minutes, the new method is using Quartermaster’s Enchantments and collecting bags from killing enemies and then open them on the double enchantments events, this will give you a lot of refinement; however the higher rank of quartermaster the better enchantment drops you’ll get from the bags.

One of the routine dailies you will be doing by habit is Sharandar; once you have completed the boons in this area still go back each day and do all three areas to gain Thaumaturgic stones; this will greatly help in the process of upgrading enchantments. If you keep repeating these processes each day then you will be able to stack up a lot of refinement to allow you to accelerate your class and companion even faster than normal.

Since each day you will open your free enchanted box to acquire the trade bars to get two pieces of the armour we will need, some times profession packs come from those boxes and these profession masters will allow you to start professions if needed; I could make an entire volume on it but the one I would recommend starting from the beginning is Leadership; you can create resonance bags and thaumaturgic bags that will give you more refinement for weapons and enchantments; along with enchantments but it does take a long time to rank up so I would start it each day and come back to it whenever you finish a task. The aim if you have not noticed is to stack up more refinement because doing this process faster and on a larger scale will rank your GWF up faster and more efficiently.

Extra Stage

You are now an above mediocre weapon fighter and you have everything on your class lined up; what now?

There is still more that can be done to the class, don’t get me wrong the hard part is out of the way the rest of the journey is running dungeons having fun with your class and upgrading until you eventually get to max.

There are other things that can be bought for the more fortunate people in the game or the people who always get good drops and annoy me ;). You can buy and upgrade using the refinement methods Quartermaster Enchantments; These will have a chance to stack small bags in your inventory (they stack) when you kill an enemy, these bags have all sorts of items from enchantments to armour even up to campaign currency, i would recommend opening then on a double enchantments so that you get double the amount from each bag; The enchantments from these bags can be used to feed in to the enchantments on your class. (More refinement)

Final Stage

This is the part of doing what I have said above and assuming you have kept repeating it you will have a class that is almost to the point of rank 13/14 enchantments and Mythic artifacts Your weapons should be on the way to Legendary or already there and the last thing is a legendary mount; these are not easy to acquire; personally I have never pulled a legendary mount from a box but since you would have been using your free key each day you may have pulled one by chance. If so that is the class almost finished but always choose a 4k power or crit mount before the T-Rex/Tenser’s Disk because these are constant values and will aid you in doing more damage than the tenser’s disk will.

The guide, in the end, is pretty simple to do and anyone can do this but it does take a while to do this even though it sounds simple class balancing with stat balancing can take a little while and be building up companions can be difficult, but stay at it repeat refining tips and you’ll be done in no time.

Hi my name is Josh and this is my Cleric Parwen Valerian. my ingame tag is @iamsmokingone#2455, and you can also reach me at [email protected] my name on the Arc Neverwinter Forums is @pariswinters#7118 because my account name is banned there…..both are banned now <3 and I just recently made a twitch channel […]

Control Wizard Mod 15 PvE Guide Below, available in pdf, is my Mod 15 PvE Control Wizard guide. I decided to make a separate guide for mod 15 rather than updating my Guide to Wizardry (I’ll update it eventually, maybe) for two reasons. First, due to the amount of changes a lot of things requires […]

I am FNHUSA57. I started playing NeverWinter as a control wizard back in mod 5, it’s now mod 13 (on Xbox & PS4) and time for me to give you my updated build & full guide for the Control Wizard, (getting ready for mod 14). A bit about the CW: This class is very fun […]

Have you tried the Holy Avenger enchant? I’m running one on my GWF currently. I would definitely use it over Feytouched though, Feytouched is more a PvP enchant.
The reason Holy Avenger is so good: it has the third highest damage in the game, behind Flaming and Bilethorn, tied with Terror – but all of those require either multiple hits or a delay before doing damage, meaning they aren’t good for clearing mobs, only for single target work. The Holy Avenger actually does the bonus damage immediately, so it can be used for any situation.
Also, it is entirely possible to have the Battle Fury feat and the Slam feat at the same time without sacrificing Powerful Challenge. Mighty Blade is entirely useless as a GWF, because both WMS and IBS are Cone, not AoE, and can easily lose it to gain the BF feat.
Don’t forget the Rising rings from the Underdark either, I prefer those to Ostorian rings.

I have tried the holy avenger enchantment and even though it states to have a higher weapon damage overall it does not actually output that damage on to physical target, i only recommend the feytouch because it is close to the same level as the vorpal and since the attack stat of the enemies and bosses is higher in tier 3 dungeons it actually proves more efficient overall. rising ring are decent to run but i’ve gained more overall damage form the ostorian rings but i guess that could be down to preference. I believe you are actually correct about that feat but through testing i’ve managed to gain more damage with WMS with that feat on so i will retest again just to be 100% certain and i will repost the images and build if i find it ultimately does not apply (I have read about the Burst only procs might blade but seem to still get more anyway). This could be the way i worded it; if so i apologise for that, i am only saying that if you would really like to run battle fury you can spec in to it; however this would normally be done on the original build and you would only lose damage if you remove specific feats other than slam for relentless battle fury.

I know this already but thank you for saying this in the comments so anyone who goes to the comments will know in advance for mod 13 on console, I do not have it in my build yet because my build is only “Pre-Mod 13” so my build will change over once mod 13 is released on console.

If I were to make a gwf in this current mod.. what build/route would get me the most dps possible for a gwf to output? Pure crit/power and defense? I want most damage possible and if then being said, would I go with vorpal or lightning? Also, would I run azures in offensive and defensive as other builds suggest or follow through with darks in defense for the lifesteal?

On the assumption that you are already level 70 just starting in this mod critical chance is very important, This could per say be a long shot but you could use the lostmauth set for now because it does give good armour penetration which would allow you to deal more damage to the enemies overall and if possible you could run the guild power boon if you have one. You can always run weapon master for extra critical chance overall which is what i ran when i was a lower item level.
i would also run two pieces of the dusk set for the extra bonuses that it ensures since power could be an issue and there is a lot of stats that you would need overall.( I ran two pieces of dusk armour form the trade bar merchant and two pieces of elven); just based in the query that i was dissatisfied with the dragon flight armour. (Buy Dusk raid scail mail and Dusk raid greaves, Elven ward vambraces and Elemental alliance assault sallet.
If you are already level 70 then you can just use my build and skills even without the necessary boons and mounts it will still deal good damage overall.
If you are not level 70 then i would recommend either progressing towards my build or make your own entirely and respec to my build when you reach level 70.
Your life steal will be hindered for the time being since you would not be running dark 12’s it would cost you to many slots to run the correct life steal overall. I would go with defense for now even though it will cost you survivability you want max damage and that will help you get more power overall.
The lightning would be better overall for its group damage and you get a slight buff on single target which although not amazing would be good enough as an all rounded enchantment; plus on the groups it would give you more survivability, however it is more expensive so you may have to go with the vorpal for now but get the lightning at your own convenience and swap the vorpal out.
Hope your GWF goes well 🙂

On active companions it does nothing, only on the summoned companion does the gear and enchantments matter because your bonding stones will proc anything gear/enchantment wise on the companion three times assuming you’re running three bonding stones. I also do not mind how many questions you need to ask as long as by the end you’re more satisfied with your GWF than when you started.

Thank you, i have seen major improvements. I just got a glorious resurgence epic mounts pack. What would you advise me?
1) Open it and take… which mount? I currently have (white) waterdeep horse, (green) giant beetle, (green) shadow wolf, (purple) gas spore, (purple) lord’s armored polar bear or
2) Auction it for AD? (and how much?)
Item level 9969 atm. I was thinking of auctioning it and go for the companions you mention above.

I’m glad you have noticed great improvements to your GWF, you should probably sell it and work towards companions since they will give you the best dps output right now in the shortest amount of time.Try to work towards a glorious resurgence companion pack since they’re cheaper than buying the companion you would like separately (At least on xbox) and then take the companion you wanted.

you’ll want all titan steel raid, however the armour has a lot of crit if you find yourself with too much crit, remove the headpiece and go for guise of the wolf clan (Mysterious Merchant) or Rex Corona (King of Spine lure)

They’re identical to running a dragon born my friend; i believe it says in the build the feats are the same for dragon born and half orc but if it does not my apologies, the only time they’re different is if you choose human which i would never recommend.

Thank you for the compliments on the build, i have not yet started the boons for chult as i am working towards unlocking the dungeon first; in my opinion for the boons go for the power boon or if you are struggling with damage against dinosaurs specifically then you can choose that.

You helped me with my build a long time ago, in December I think. Just wanted to say thank you and your tips lead me to having an almost identical build to what you have now. Really appreciated you taking the time to help me.
Kind regards,
Rogue [email protected]

Thank you for your kind compliments to my build, i do remember helping you and i’m glad that the information i gave you then has lead to you becoming a good GWF (I’ve seen your clips). Hope you continue to become even stronger in the future.

thanks, my gwf is at 14,800 lv, my artifacts are in legendary, there is still a lot of work, my enchantments this rank 12, all, partner included, I hope to come one day to be like your gwf, it is my goal, thank you very much for your construction, is very good, all my guildmates use it and we are very satisfied

best thing to do is to upgrade the skills that you would like to use because it makes it more fun, just make sure you refer to my build for the skills to fully upgrade as you level through when you get to those skills.

Honestly you can if you would like to since it’s a “max” dps build technically i should say yes but it’s more or less useless to acquire the additional points for that campaign unless you bought the completion token; the only reason to complete the campaign to 100% efficiency is to acquire more item level.

CON is not the worst because of aura of courage it’s not amazing but I believe the dwarf has more damage resistance to certain moves pools and you can use that as an advantage to not have to play so careful like some GWFs and giving yourself some more damage.

i do not know; but i’ve been informed that the way to fix it before is to un-slot and re-slot it into your armour in a dungeon if this happens, so if it is still broken try that fix until you have an unparalleled.

Just started a gwf using this build, I dont have all the armor or companions or enchantments and dealt out more damage than someone with twice my power. Enjoying it so far just a drag getting everything

The way I’ve been told to fix the Trans negation should it still be broken is to remove it and reapply it to your armour in the dungeon, this cost gold so it should work good as new at unparalleled. The best enchantment would be the feytouched enchantment for now i’ll update that if anything changes in the future. run an unparalleled lightning and unparalleled feytouched in the future.

Thanks for the guide! I’m a little confused on the companion section. You have your Chultan Tiger listed with some fierce rings, but when I scrolled down a bit, you’re recommending to use Bronzewood rings. Which one should we follow?

First af all, thank you for sharing and for this fantastic build, is not only the one I use but the one that I have used to understand the builds on the game for other characters. I have one question, if you have to choose your first leg mount( and not sure i can get another one), would you take Tenser or Trex(or another one)?

I would choose the T-Rex as the capability for your team and for your own damage will scale much higher than if you was to use the tenser’s disk. If in the future you decide to use a Tenser’s Disk then I would recommend using it over the T-Rex if you have 3-5 Teammates with Rexs in your group and 6+ in a 10 person dungeon.

Hey thanks for the awesome guide.
I currently use the slam build. I having been using a swarm I got lucky enough to pull one. I am also using the Primal Weps and fured kino, heels of fury and terror grips. I can’t get fearbringers yet. So my question is seeings how Brutals are what I want endgame. I bought as many rank 9’s 2 rank 10’s and 2 rank 11 and I was just going to level them myself. I have also noticed that when using weponmaster I don’t see the increased crit. I am currently at 75%. Thanks for looking.

Hi, thanks for all your hard work. Extremely helpful btw 🙂 I’ve noticed the heart of black dragon ratification seems highly recommended. The tooltip talks about executing a ‘leaping strike’ I think (from memory). Do you change up your powers and rotation or is it not worth it?

I’ve completed Ravenloft campaign but am yet to run CR. I’m still chasing several BiS armour pieces and have only just got primal weapons (still trying to unlock fane). My bindings are R12 (trying for razorwood) and have no mount combat power as yet. How do I find you in game?

Apologies I was taking a break from the game so that I can let new things to do pile up; however, stick to the rotations on the guide, use black dragon, slam, Battle fury, Daring Shout, Hidden daggers. Start with a rex if you have no mounts currently.